Addressing Rural Community’s Risk Perceptions, Vulnerability, and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Mozambique, Africa

Resumo

Global climate change challenges the lives and survival of rural communities. Mozambique is one of the Southern African countries most vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as floods, storms, cyclones, and droughts. The future of rural communities and their generations could be jeopardised if sustainable and long-term actions are not implemented to alleviate local shocks. Nevertheless, barriers and failures in implementing winning actions are relatively related to (1) lack of scientific studies and knowledge regarding risk perceptions, responses, and adaptation strategies; (2) Standardisation of strategies without before understanding the complexities, characteristics, and the specific realities of rural communities. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity to climate change, the perception of Cabo Delgado communities and attitudes towards adaptation that influence their decisions to adopt adaptation strategies. Through structured interviews with 1000 (F = 31%, M = 69%) community respondents, we collected both qualitative and quantitative data. We provided useful information to increase local social understanding, with the aim of providing tools for local planning and natural resources management for risk and vulnerability reduction to climate change/extreme events. We found that perceptions of climate change vary substantially between gender and education. The study found that communities have noticed changes such as reduced rainfall, increased droughts, storms, cyclones, and increased temperature. The gradual loss of income, properties, declining agricultural production, and increased hunger were identified as indicators of sensitivity to climate change. Even so, adaptive capacities are low and about 90% of respondents do not use any adaptation strategy to deal with climate changes. We conclude that communities are very susceptible to possible shocks from climate change. Therefore, income diversification, strong education system, awareness on climate change matter, and advanced agricultural policy should be considered as priorities for adaptation strategies.